Search for old Atari games to go on in New Mexico

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — Organizers say a planned dig into a New Mexico landfill for a rumored cache of what some consider the worst Atari video game of all time is expected to proceed despite state environmental regulators' concerns.

Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive are seeking to excavate an old Alamogordo landfill that reportedly was a dumping ground for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" game cartridges.

Jonathan Chinn, an executive producer at Austin, Texas-based LightBox, said Thursday that the search hasn't been halted.

Chinn says a local waste-management consultant who filed an excavation permit is addressing questions raised by the New Mexico Environmental Department.

A department spokesman has said the agency was waiting on a revised waste excavation plan.

"E.T." the video game, inspired by the hit 1982 movie, is said to have contributed to Atari's decline.